Mila Seppälä
Mila Seppälä is working on her Ph.D. dissertation at the John Morton Center for North American Studies as a doctoral researcher fully funded by the doctoral program of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Turku. Her research focuses on youth activism and the development of political imagination in the gun violence prevention movement in the United States. She has worked on multiple publications together with the Campus Carry project including the co-written essay on student testimonials on Campus Carry in the Journal of American Studies (2021) and a book chapter in Up in Arms: Gun Imaginaries in Texas (Brill, 2022). She currently has research under review at peer-reviewed journals on the framing of gun violence and gun control activism. She has accepted an article on attitudes towards gun reform in the U.S. at Political Behavior. She has also written about topics such as gun politics, youth activism, and the 2020 presidential elections for Turun Sanomat (frequent contributor), SAM Magazine, and Widerscreen.
Seppälä spent the academic year 2021–2022 at The University of Texas at Austin as a Fulbright grantee conducting fieldwork for her dissertation and studying in the American Studies program. She has also taught a course at the University of Turku on prominent historical social movements in the U.S. Her course and teaching has received enthusiastically positive feedback.
Waltteri Immonen
Waltteri Immonen is working on his Ph.D dissertation in the Political Science Unit of the Department of Philosophy, Contemporary History and Political Science at the University of Turku. He has received funding for his research from the Turku University Foundation. His research is tentatively titled, "Nationalism In Our Times - Lessons from Nationalism During Times of Crises". In this research, he explores positive manifestations and uses of nationalism as arguments for social cohesion to navigate various crises.
Waltteri has published in prominent peer-reviewed journals, such as European Union Politics and Politiikka, on the COVID-19 pandemic and state responses. He has also worked as a paid researcher on large-scale projects with collaboration across several universities in Finland. For example, he was a researcher in the Participation in Long-Term Decision-Making (PALO) research project, which explored the problem of short-termism in public decision-making. He is also a researcher in the Just Recovery from Covid-19? Fundamental Rights, Legitimate Governance and Lessons Learnt (JuRe) project where he utilizes his interview methodological skills to better understand governmental responses to COVID-19.
